This Guy's In Love With You, Dude!
by Attharun
Summary: Cagalli and Athrun aren't any different from every pair of typical childhood friends out there; probably why fate decided to play a little trick on them. So how does Cagalli deal with the fact that she's fallen for her best friend - Her gay best friend?
1. The Accidental Rendezvous

Disclaimer: Gundam Seed, not mine.

A/n: Okay, so it's been like three months or so since I've made my existence known here in FF. net. But I've been suffering from writer's block again. Which is why I'm writing this story. And hopefully, I won't get the block on this one. So tell me if it's okay, okay? Geez, am I getting repetitive…

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Chapter 1 The Accidental Rendezvous

It was long after midnight, but the city park in Lancaster Avenue, Onogoro City, Orb, wasn't completely empty yet, though heavy rain had been pouring for hours.

A little girl, who looked to be about five years old, was sitting on one of those wooden park benches, staring at her wet, motionless feet. She had shoulder-length blonde hair, which at the moment looked straighter than it actually was.

If a casual observer were to look at this child closely, he/she would notice that her trembling lips were turning blue, her small frail-looking body was shivering, and – though one would have to do a double take – the girl was crying in silence. The reason? Well, that'll be known soon.

And who better to know first than a little boy who was walking by?

The said little boy, who also looked like he was no older than the blonde, was taking careful steps, while holding a small umbrella in one hand. He passed by the figure on the park bench without noticing her. After taking a few more steps, he stopped, turned around, and quickly put his umbrella over the girl.

"What are you doing without an umbrella? And at this time of night too," the boy said, almost sounding like a parent though he was only five.

"Look, you're freezing," he went on, taking off his blue sweater and placing it on her.

The girl's head tilted upward, looking at the blue-haired boy through amber-colored eyes, like it was perfectly normal to be soaked head to toe in a park at dawn.

"I don't care," was all she said.

The boy was taken aback. "You don't care? Why are you here anyway?"

"Ran away," she answered.

"Why?"

"Why are you here?" the blond said pointedly. "I won't tell you why _I'm_ here if you don't tell me why _you're_ here."

The boy, who had vivid green eyes, hesitated. But he figured he had to tell someone, and in this case, a girl - who didn't know better than he did - was the only one he could confide in.

"I decided to take a walk," he said. "My parents were fighting when I went out of the house." Then he shrugged, as if to say, "That's it."

"Oh," the blonde said in return. She stared at her slippers again. "So I guess I'll have to tell you why I'm here."

Before the raven-haired five year old could say anything in response, the amber-eyed girl spoke.

"I ran away because of my father," she started. "He took my brother with him somewhere, just after dinnertime tonight, and when he came back…" she trailed off, not really wanting to say more.

"When your dad came back, what happened?"

"My dad… He said he gave Kira away to an orphanage. Just like that," the blonde continued, snapping her fingers when she said "that".

"Why?" the boy asked for the third time that night.

The girl he was talking to shook her head. "I dunno. All Father said was 'Cagalli, you wouldn't understand it yet.'"

"I-," the boy started to say.

"I hate him. I _hate_ Father," the girl, Cagalli, said, cutting the boy off. "_I hate him_!" she screamed.

"Hey, I'm sure he has some kind of reason why he sent your brother to the orphanage," the boy said, trying to calm her down.

"Why does he have to take Kira there? He has a real family," Cagalli answered. "Only kids without families are sent to the orphanage."

The boy didn't have an answer to that.

An awkward silence surrounded both of them. The only sound that could be heard was the ongoing downpour of the heavy rain.

"What's your name?" the blonde asked, breaking the silence after a few minutes.

"I'm Athrun Zala," the boy replied, holding out his hand.

"Cagalli Yula Attha," the blonde said, shaking Athrun's extended hand.

"You're princess of Orb, aren't you?"

"Don't call me a princess," she said testily.

"Why not?"

"It makes me sound all girly, and I'm not really all that girly."

"Oh, okay," Athrun said slowly, surprised that the princess didn't want to be addressed as one.

"I've heard about your dad from my father," Cagalli said. "He owns that big building I always pass by on the way to school."

"Well, uh, yeah, but that isn't all he owns," the green-eyed boy said, at first shaky, but proud towards the end of the sentence.

"Hey, it stopped raining," the blonde announced, holding her palm in front of her, trying to feel for raindrops, if there was still any.

Athrun put his umbrella down. "Yeah, it has stopped."

He sat down next to Cagalli, forgetting that the bench was still wet from the downpour. As soon as he realized that, he jumped out of it like it was filled with a hundred volts of electricity.

"Oh no, my shorts are getting wet!" he groaned.

Cagalli couldn't help but laugh.

Athrun frowned. "Hey, it's not funny!"

After a while the blonde stopped laughing. She gave Athrun a serious look.

"Hey, can you be my substitute brother?"

"Substitute brother?"

"Can you?" she persisted.

"Okay. Why not?" Athrun said.

Cagalli stood up and gave him a hug. "Thanks!" she said happily, like a grown-up had offered to take her to the carnival or something.

And at that exact moment, the sun started to spread its early morning light on the east.

"Cagalli, get off me! I don't want to get cooties, you know!"

And so was the start of Athrun and Cagalli's unbreakable allegiance of friendship.

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A/n: Well, call it a prologue if you will since it isn't all that long. And I promise I'll try updating on my other fics as soon as I can get rid of my writer's block. 


	2. The Revelation Part 1

A/n: Okay, so I'm really late updating again. School's been a whole lot of hell for me so far. Sigh. Anyways, here's chapter two.

Chapter 2 The Revelation

Where one story starts, another one unfolds. And this second story must be told – or in this case, read – in order for the first one to proceed.

This said story starts in a patch of land, which was a low-lying plateau that overlooked a sandy beach. On the patch of land stood an inconspicuous-looking residence with an exterior made out of mahogany logs.

The log house was actually a humble orphanage run by a retired pastor, who had become blind due to an accident that had happened just a few years past. The orphanage housed fourteen children, most of whom the former pastor himself had taken into his custody, until some other people would come along and care for one of the orphans as his or her own.

On that particular day, the pastor, who was called Reverend Malchio by the people who knew him, was sitting on a chair, with his trusty walking stick leaning on one leg of a table beside him.

Reverend Malchio had a grim look in his eyes. He was waiting, expecting a visitor, but it was obvious that he wasn't just inviting the visitor over for a cup of tea. They were to talk about a grave matter, one that should be taken into great consideration…

"Reverend?"

"Oh, Michal," the blind pastor said, recognizing the voice as one of his "children". "Have you finished your supper?"

Michal, a boy who had dirty-blonde hair and hazel eyes, nodded vigorously. Then, remembering that the man he was talking to was visually impaired, answered, "Yep. Me and Jared are gonna make sandcastles out on the beach later."

"That's good, but don't stay up too late, okay?"

"We won't," he answered. "Reverend Malchio, are you still waiting for the visitor you told us about this morning?" the child added.

The old man nodded. "He said he would arrive at about this time. Orb is quite far from here, about four hours on the road."

Michal was about to answer when he saw a brand-new-looking black car pull up across the street. From his view from the window, he could see a man getting out of the car.

This man looked to be middle-aged. He had long brown hair that extended down below his shoulder blades. He seemed to be an important personality in Orb, judging from the familiar purple suit he wore, which was exactly the same as the ones Orb representatives adorned.

"Um, Reverend Malchio, I think that's him," Michal informed the blind man. He opened the door for the important-looking man in the purple suit.

"Ah, yes, I've been expecting you," the reverend said, his voice sounding as grim as his facial features. He turned his head to where he mentally visualized as the doorway. "You were only sixteen when I saw you last, Uzumi Nara Attha."

"Yes, I know," Representative Uzumi answered. "I heard about your blindness, Reverend," he added. "I'm sorry."

"There's really nothing to be sorry about," Reverend Malchio said jovially. "I lost my vision for a good cause."

"The Reverend saved me from a bomb explosion during the war," Michal chimed in. Sadly, he added, "His eyes got hit by the shrapnel from the bomb. All because of me."

"I never blamed you. It's the war that is at fault."

"Michal, hey!" a different voice yelled from the outside of the orphanage. "Come on!"

"Er…"

"Go on," Reverend Malchio said, consenting the boy, who immediately went out the back door, letting in the salty breeze, which came from the seawater outside.

As soon as Michal was out of earshot, the pastor spoke. "I know why you're here, Representaive Attha. Are you really sure you want to go through with what you're planning?"

"I have no choice," the younger man said. "I have to abide by the traditions of my country."

"That tradition – if that's what you call it – isn't worth keeping," the blind man replied. "Not if it creates an emotional scar in one's life. You know how it feels, Uzumi. Your own father did that to you. Do you actually intend to do the same to your own son?"

"My only son Kira can't rule Orb if I don't isolate him from the country until he is of age," Uzumi said flatly. "If I don't do this, the council will most definitely question my decision. I don't want the Attha dynasty to fade away because of my own selfish reasons."

"Your only son will come to despise you," Reverend Malchio warned. "Are you willing to take that risk in order to consolidate your power over Orb?"

"I'm doing this for his future. Kira is the only potential ruler of Orb. Only he can succeed me. You know that."

The pastor let out a sigh. "Then do what you must," he said. Then in his mind he added, _He loves his country even more than his own child. He is too much like his father._

There was nothing out of the ordinary with Athrun Zala and Cagalli Yula Attha's newfound friendship. In fact, it was so normal that fate probably decided to make things more interesting.

It was the blonde five-year old who had first noticed that something was different. Cagalli had been aware that there was always something not quite usual with Athrun, which made him seem different from the other boys in their school.

The root of this irregularity occurred only a few months after both met. Athrun had invited Cagalli to his home that day.

Somehow the amber-eyed girl had talked Athrun into wearing one of her frilly pinky dresses – which she absolutely refused to wear unless her nursemaid Mana forced her to during special occasions – that she brought from her house a few blocks away.

"I just wanna see if you look girly wearing a dress," Cagalli said, persuading the raven-haired boy. "Besides, you can take it off right after."

"Okay, fine, I'll try it out, but I promise to complain the whole way," Athrun replied, letting the blonde place the accursed dress over his clothes.

"Hey! You never said your dress made you feel hot and itchy when you wore it," he complained.

"If I told you that, you wouldn't wear it, would you? Besides, just look at yourself. You actually look… _pretty_."

Athrun went over to the full-body mirror beside his closet and stared at himself.

"Yeah, yeah, I look like a girl. Big laugh. _Now _can I get this thing off?"

"Right, whatever," the girl said dismissively. The dress obviously had no value at all for her.

Athrun was just about to take the horrid pink apparel off him when he heard a loud, booming voice just outside the open door of his room.

"Athrun Zala!"

He turned around. "F-Father?" he stammered.

"_What is the meaning of this?_" Patrick Zala demanded, putting emphasis into every word he said.

"Father, I-,"

"We'll talk about this later," he interrupted. Athrun's father turned to the blonde. "Cagalli, you should be heading home. Your father called and told me he wanted to talk to you."

_Talk? _She thought, snorting inwardly. _Yeah, right._

"Okay, Mr. Zala," Cagalli replied. She took the dress off Athrun, who was as stiff as a board, afraid of facing his father's wrath. "I'll see you tomorrow, Athrun."

She then walked out of the room. She hadn't taken a few steps when she heard shouting from Athrun's room. Cagalli was tempted to listen in, but she remembered that she had to head home.

The amber-eyed five-year old had a feeling that she had to move fast. She felt that what her father wanted to tell her was important. Really important.

So important that her dad actually went out of his way to call her home, since he and Cagalli never once spoke a word to each other since he sent Cagalli's brother to the orphanage, more than half a year ago.

It was her mother who knew everything about Cagalli; she was always the one the girl confided everything to. But since her mother was in a comatose state after she had a stroke about three months ago, Cagalli found no one to turn to but her best friend Athrun.

All those thoughts were in Cagalli's head as she entered the Attha mansion, inside where her father Uzumi was waiting.

The five-year old temporarily set aside the anger she felt towards her father when she saw the rueful-looking face of Orb's most powerful man in the living room.

"Cagalli, I… I have bad news," Uzumi said, before his daughter could ask what the problem was.

"Is it about Mother? How is she?" Cagalli asked, getting anxious with the look on her dad's face.

Uzumi averted his eyes, not really wanting to reveal to his daughter the fate of his wife.

"Tell me, Father, what happened?" the blonde demanded. "Answer me!"

"She… She's gone, Cagalli."

It took Cagalli at least five seconds to react to what her father had just told her.

"What did you say?" she said blankly.

"You heard me, Cagalli," the Orb representative said. "Your mother, she's dead."

His daughter shook her head violently. "No! The doctor told me she'd wake up, Father! He told me! You're lying!" she shouted angrily. Tears were streaming down her cheeks like twin waterfalls.

Uzumi enveloped his daughter in a tight embrace. "I'm sorry, Cagalli. I'm sorry."

"You're lying, you're lying," Cagalli said over and over again, her yells slowly becoming softer, but the tears still running down her face, never ending.

A day later, at her mother's wake, Athrun came bringing with him a box of tissues, knowing that his best friend would need it.

Cagalli had thanked him for bringing the tissues. She then noticed, as the raven-haired boy held the box out to her, that there was a big, ugly green-and-purple bruise on his wrist.

"What happened to that?" Cagalli asked.

"Oh, this is nothing," Athrun said, quickly hiding his bruised hand behind his back.

The blonde knew, from the scenario she had heard yesterday before she left Athrun's house, that his father had probably beat him for wearing the dress. But she didn't tell Athrun that.

Both never spoke of that incident again.

a/n: Well, I guess that's it for now. Chapter three will probably be more eventful. Well, peepz, till later!


	3. The Revelation Part 2

Disclaimer: Nope, still not claiming I own Gundam Seed.

a/n: Well, what do you know? I guess this story was just too interesting for me to leave alone, despite the fact I'd decided not to write any fanfiction for a while. Anyway, I'm betting everyone's forgotten this story by now. But it's worth a shot, isn't it?

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Chapter 3 The Revelation (Part Two)

The early morning sunlight filtered through the gaps of the log house, revealing the floating dust that seemed to dance gently around the large room.

A single ray of light fell upon the face of a small boy with dirty-blonde hair, the kind that could never seem to be anything other than completely messy. The boy, feeling the heat on his closed eyelids, stirred from his slumber, but not before hearing muffled cries from the far side of the room.

"Father, Father… I want to go back…"

The boy sat up on his bed and scanned his surroundings, brown eyes darting this and that direction, searching for the source of the voice. His gaze fell on a mass of dark hair that was as messy as his own and as brown as his eyes.

"I don't want to do this anymore, Father…" the other boy whispered in a voice that could barely be heard. "I want to go back-"

"Go back where?"

He turned around to face the little boy sitting on his bed. Amethyst-colored eyes were met with hazel-colored ones. His vision blurred with tears, he said simply, "Home."

_The boy had been looking out the window for quite some time before rain started pelting at it. His gaze had been so intense; some people would have believed he had the power to conjure up rainstorms. _

"_Kira? Are you okay?" _

_Kira only muttered, "Yes, I'm fine, Cagalli," with a voice that told his twin sister otherwise._

_Although he didn't see, he could sense a pout on the girl's lips when she said, "You're starting to sound an awful lot like Father, you know."_

_Kira could not help but smile guiltily at the remark. "Sorry." Just as suddenly as it had come, the grin disappeared, to be replaced by a frown that seemed plastered on his face the whole night. "I'm just worried about Mother."_

_Cagalli gave out a sigh. "I know. When she fell over in my room this morning, I didn't know what to do."_

"_I wish she didn't have to be sick."_

"_Me, too."_

_A heavy silence surrounded the siblings as they contemplated on their mother's condition, of which neither knew the name, since it was too complicated for a five year-old to even pronounce correctly._

"_You know, Cagalli," Kira began, looking away from the window and into his sister's amber-like eyes, "If Mother ever does go to that happy place she tells us about so much, maybe it would be better for her, so she doesn't have to be in a sickbed all the time."_

"_Yeah…" _

_Noting the obvious lack of conviction in Cagalli's voice, Kira continued. "Father says she's gonna be fine, though, and he had that strange look on him when he said that, so it's true. I know it is. And with our help, Mother will be better again. "_

"_Yeah," Cagalli repeated, which much more enthusiasm. She gave her brother a wide grin. "She's gonna be okay, as long as we get her to eat more, right?"_

"_Right-"_

_The conversation came to a stop when the large oak doors leading out of the mansion were flung open. A grim-looking Uzumi Nara Attha entered, eyes fixed on Kira._

"_Kira, a moment, if you please," he said, in a gentle voice that contrasted to his cool aura._

_The boy nodded and stood from the sofa he had been sitting on, but not before embracing his twin with all the love he could muster. He then followed his father, who had gone ahead to his study._

_Cagalli merely stared, confused at the sudden act Kira had done. She had no idea – at that moment, at least – why she had a certain thought on her mind: that her brother hugging her meant he was saying goodbye…_

_Kira heaved a heavy-hearted sigh as he opened the door to the Representative's study. "Father? It's… It's time, isn't it?"_

_Uzumi looked up from his desk and nodded. "I know I've told you this many times before, but what I'm going to put you through is something I never would have wanted to do."_

"_But I know you have to do it. And… it's okay."_

"_I won't blame you at all if you're mad at me, Kira." The Representative's voice seemed to crack at that point._

"_I'm not mad, Father," Kira answered, forcing a smile that came out as a pained expression instead. "I'll just miss everyone, that's all."_

"_I'll tell Cagalli to write to you often."_

_Before the boy could respond, two men in formal suits entered the room. "Everything's prepared, sir."_

_Uzumi exhaled heavily and stood from his seat. "Off we go, then," he said, in an attempt to sound cheerful as he blinked his tears away._

_He did not see his son doing the same thing._

"Home, huh?" the other boy said, penetrating Kira's thoughts. "Well, at least you know you have one. Me, I've been in this orphanage since I was two. Reverend Malchio told me my mom and dad died in the war, and I don't have anything to remember them by but my name."

"What _is _your name?"

"Michal. 'Bout you?"

"I'm Kira Yula Attha," Kira replied.

Michal snorted. "Attha, that's the royal family, isn't it? Why would someone from Orb be in an orphanage?"

Kira bit on his lower lip and sniffed. "You won't get it if I told you."

The blonde, thinking that the boy he was talking to had gone through enough already, said, "Sorry. So, uh… You want me to show you around after breakfast? There's a nice beach outside, and we play there all the time."

"Alright."

"Um… Kira, right? If it's okay to ask, how is it, living in Orb?"

The question made the brown-haired boy's mind flash various events that he could remember up to that point in time: running around the vast garden with his sister, walking in the park with his mother on a warm sunny day, purchasing a picture book with his father on a Sunday…

And despite his situation, a small smile made its way to his lips as he said, "It's great."

* * *

A good number of months had passed, but Cagalli still refused to come to terms with her Father for what he had done to her brother, even after Uzumi had given her the orphanage's address for when she would write letters to him.

Of course, since she was five and did not want to send anything with her messy handwriting to Kira, she had not written to him even once. Instead, she had been busy practicing her writing incessantly at school (and at home), not resting until she could write an entire letter with a penmanship that even adults would praise.

Along with that objective, she had made a vow to herself that she would steer her best friend Athrun away from trouble at all costs. After she had seen the bruise on his wrist, she felt that what Athrun had suffered was her fault, and no matter how she tried to look at it, she was _still_ the one to blame.

Little did she know that her frilly dress was also partly at fault for the unusual events that were to happen after.

Unusual event number one happened about a year later, a few days after Athrun celebrated his sixth birthday. Cagalli had walked a few blocks to get to the raven-haired boy's residence to wake him, an act she was used to doing, as she had always been the early bird of the two. Opening the door to Athrun's room, she tiptoed to the bed where a sleeping form lay; while doing so, she caught a familiar sight in the corner of her eye on a side table.

A golden clip.

_Her _golden clip. An item she had lost during Athrun's birthday party, and something she did not bother searching for, seeing as she was not known for giving value to her accessories.

Cagalli had dismissed this as unimportant, however, thinking that Athrun had probably found it and would give it back to her when he'd remember to.

But she never got the clip back.

Unusual event number two, which happened a few years later, was all the more strange. And this was how it happened.

"Athrun, how do you do this?" nine year-old Cagalli whined, looking at her mathematics homework exasperatedly. "I didn't get a word the teacher said."

The boy raised an eyebrow at her. "Really? I think it was pretty easy."

"Well, I'm sorry I'm not as much of a genius as you are, Zala."

Athrun let out a small laugh, not enough to anger his best friend even more. "Come on, I was just kidding. Here," he said, taking Cagalli's notebook and flipping it to the last page. He scrawled a pair of fractions. "First you have to skip count and fine a same number between these two at the bottom. In this case, it's twelve. Then you divide twelve with three and multiply it by the number at the top, which is one. So now you have a new fraction, four-twelfths. Do the same thing to the second fraction and you have five-twelfths. Add four by five and copy the bottom."

Cagalli stared. "That's it?"

"That's it," Athrun said with a shrug.

"But Mr. Waltfeld was going on and on about least common denominators and stuff," the girl complained. "You make it seem so easy."

"Well, you were busy writing 'The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog' during class, anyhow."

"Only because I want to write Kira a nice, neat letter."

"Yeah, I know how important that is to you," Athrun said with a grin. "Don't worry, your writing is actually pretty good already, better than mine will ever be."

"Well, I'm not gonna rest till it's perfect," Cagalli said firmly. She stood up.

"Hey, I thought you weren't gonna rest till your writing's perfect."

"Well, I can't write if I feel like peeing," she answered, heading towards the nearest bathroom, which was in the kitchen area of the house.

Athrun, meanwhile, continued his own homework in basic algebra, a subject that only he among his classmates took up.

He did not notice the cockroach that had flown from the bathroom to Cagalli's notebook until the blonde ran towards him, slipper in hand. Only then did he see the bronze little monstrosity.

"Aaaaahhhhhhh!" he screamed, running and hiding behind Cagalli for cover.

"And since when did you become scared of roaches?" the girl questioned, glaring at the small insect. "You used to kill them for me all the time when we were five."

"I don't know, I had a traumatic experience of a roach flying towards my face once. Just kill it, already. It might fly towards _your _face this time," Athrun said hastily.

"You wish," Cagalli retorted, slamming the slipper hard on the roach. "Well, that's that."

Athrun exhaled in relief. "Finally."

Cagalli could not shake off her best friends "freak-o moment" (as she was to call it later on) with the cockroach. She had known him four years, but he had never showed signs of fearing insects like those. Until then, that is.

"Athrun?" she asked after a few minutes, as they were finishing their last few assignments.

"Yeah?"

"Is there… um… something you're not telling me?" she said carefully.

For a moment, Athrun looked like he did have a confession to make, but whatever it was, he did not reveal it to the girl.

"Nope, nothing. Why?" he asked guardedly.

"No, forget it," was all Cagalli answered.

Unusual event numbers three, four and five were all telltale signs that no one except Cagalli would have noticed _–_ as the blonde had taken it upon herself to watch her best friend more closely since unusual event number two.

The said unusual events consisted of Athrun writing a guy's name on the back of his notebook (with little hearts on the page) during fifth grade, talking on and on (quite fondly) about a particular soccer player during seventh grade, and keeping photographs of good-looking guys in his locker during eighth grade.

Cagalli wanted to believe that the unusual events were nothing but coincidences, or just harmless tendencies, perhaps. But she was aware that she would find it hard to sleep well at night if she kept on guessing. Like it or not, she would have to ask Athrun herself.

And on one morning in January, as both were walking down an empty hallway to their next class, she finally did.

"Athrun, can I ask you something?"

Thirteen year-old Athrun shrugged, unaware of Cagalli's suspicions. "Sure."

It is said, scientifically, that most women are likely to beat around the bush before actually getting to the point.

But Cagalli had never been in to science, and she was not most women, either.

"Areyougay?" she blurted out quickly, too quickly. Getting to the point was not easy, though she was quite used to doing so.

"I was wondering when you'd get around to asking me that," Athrun said, smiling sadly.

"So… you are…?"

He hesitated, but finally gave a small nod in response.

A silence that had not once occurred between them since they were five ensued, the tension almost ready to make either crack at any moment.

Athrun sighed. "Well, you'll probably want to leave and never come near me again. I won't blame you."

"And why would I do that?" Cagalli asked.

"Because… Well… Normally that's what people do when they find out, right?"

"Athrun, even if you told me you were a humanoid alien from another galaxy, I'd still want you as my best friend. I'd still want you as my substitute brother," she told him.

"Really? So, it's fine with you?" Athrun said, with a surprised-but-happy look on his face.

"Sure it is!" Cagalli said, a smile gracing her lips.

"Thanks," Athrun said, almost in a whisper, wrapping himself around his best friend in a tight hug.

The blonde hugged back, shoving all negative thoughts at the back of her mind. She would just have to accept Athrun for who he was; nothing more, nothing less.

_I can do that, _she thought. _I can definitely do that._

* * *

a/n: Well, this was quite a long one according to my standards, at least. I can't promise I'll be posting more chapters soon, since I have to go back home (I'm in my dad's place, which is islands away from my house) in two days. But I will try, definitely. Big words, coming from a lazy girl like me. LOL.

P.S.: Haven't edited this yet, since I pretty much typed this up in one sitting. Sorry for any typos. D


	4. Transformations

Disclaimer: No, I've given up thinking I own Gundam Seed.

a/n: Well, instead of spending my last days here moping around, I'll take a second shot at adding chapters to this fic. It won't make up for the two-year hiatus, I know, but still, better than not doing anything with it, right?

* * *

"…_that the next chosen Representative… must first be proven worthy of leadership over the homeland by way of an eleven-year exile from childhood… until his coming of age."_

- Excerpt from section 7, paragraph 1 of the revised Orb constitution

* * *

Chapter 4 Transformations

Intense.

It was the only word that could aptly describe the way his eyes pierced a fraction of the sky above, as he sat on the sand, letting the water soak his feet.

The years of Kira Yula Attha's life seemed to crawl by unbearably slowly as he counted off the days. But what good would counting do? It did nothing to ease the loneliness in his heart. The fact still remained: He had eleven long years to spend away from his country, and more importantly, his family.

He was not permitted to witness his mother's funeral; a single letter from his father, one that consisted of barely five sentences, informed him of what had come to pass.

A single tear rolled down his cheeks at the thought of his mother's death. Of course, he had meant every word he had told his twin sister, that heaven was a much better alternative to a hospital. But when it _did _happen, he could not bring himself to be glad. No, he wanted for nothing more than to see his mother, alive and well, when he came back to Orb; she made him hold on and look forward to that moment.

The fact that Cagalli had not once written a letter to him did much to extinguish all hope he had left inside him. Did she not even wonder why Kira had gone without a word? Was she not concerned for her twin brother? Did she even love him at all?

"Kira! Come on! Lunch time!"

The boy, with a quick swipe of his hand, wiped away the tear on his cheek before he stood and turned around. "I'll catch up a bit later, Fllay."

Fllay, the girl who had called him, rested her hands on her knees, breathing hard. In between her panting, she said, "I came… all this way… do you know how far this place is to the house? And now… you tell me you're gonna 'catch up a bit later'? I… don't think so."

"Alright," Kira answered, trying hard to conceal the smile on his lips. "I'll come and eat lunch. But only because you went through the trouble of looking for me."

Fllay beamed at him. "Great! Glad to see you're not putting up a fight."

The girl, it seemed, was the only person – other than Reverend Malchio – who Kira said more than one or two words to.

The boy named Michal, Kira's first friend in the orphanage, was fortunate to have been adopted by a wealthy family from a faraway country that happened to be on vacation in the beach town where the orphans lived. After the event, the brown-haired boy resolved to be a loner, so he would not have to experience being abandoned a third time.

Yet, this girl Fllay did not seem to get the message, as she had been trying to make a friend out of the boy ever since Michal left. She usually was the first (often the only one) to volunteer when the blind pastor asked someone to look for Kira at the beach when it was time for lunch.

The thirteen year-old boy laughed at the remark. "Do I really come across like that?"

"Like what?"

"The kind of person who'd always try to put up a fight."

Fllay looked thoughtful for a moment as she searched for the right words in her mind. "Well, yes. But that's only 'cause you went through what you did. No one blames you for it."

Kira could not help but gape at her. He had not told anyone but Michal of his true identity; everyone in the orphanage only knew him as Kira without a surname.

"How… How do you–"

"Reverend Malchio often gathers everybody by the fireplace at night, while you're out on the beach," Fllay explained. "He tells us how he's seen your father go through the exact same thing you did, and how much it hurts to be away from a family that he knew he had. Being an orphan, it hurts not having all the answers as to who one's parents were, what family one could have had. But turns out you have it much worse, if you know all the answers, because you end up yearning for your family even more."

The boy took a deep breath. Looking away from Fllay's grey eyes, he muttered, "I thought we were going to have lunch now. No need to rub in what I already know."

The redhead bit on her lower lip. "Sorry," she said in a low voice.

A familiar feeling, guilt, chose this time to, figuratively, start chewing on Kira's insides.

He willed himself to grin as he broke into a run, looked over his shoulder and shouted, "Last one inside does the dishes!"

Fllay, unable to resist the challenge, bolted after the Orb prince. "And that is so not gonna be me!"

* * *

Barely a year had passed since Athrun Zala had confirmed to Cagalli what she had never wanted to believe the first time the thought crossed her mind.

It was not that Cagalli had anything against homosexuals, since she had never felt such, anyhow. The feeling of uneasiness came from the thought of having to get used to the fact that Athrun was just… well, different.

And on a day she would not forget any time soon, she was to find out that she would become different, as well.

"So, what do you think of Cyrus Khang?" fourteen year-old Athrun asked his best friend eagerly one morning, as they both walked to their school.

Although their families had various types of automobiles at their disposal, the two friends found it much more enjoyable to travel on foot, since it made for more interesting conversations.

Cagalli gave Athrun a dirty look. "Oh, _please_. That guy is a loser, Zala."

"No, he isn't!" the boy protested. "He just happens to be smart, nice, and… er, smart."

"Uh-huh. Right. Same thing you said about Rob Salem, about three weeks ago."

"Hey, you could at least try boosting my morale by agreeing with some of the things I say."

"Well, I can't help but think all the guys in our school are jerks," Cagalli replied, with an obvious air of nonchalance.

"So you think I'm a jerk?"

A smirk appeared on her face. "I said all _guys_ in school are jerks. You're a _girl_ now, aren't you? You're not included!"

Before Athrun had a chance to retort, Cagalli made a dash northward.

The boy sighed. Other than his best friend, no one else knew of his deep, dark secret, for fear of not only societal rejection, but also – and most especially – for fear of what his father would do should he be able to find out.

"Shut up, will you?" Athrun said loudly, laughing as he ran after the blonde girl.

A few minutes later, two exhausted teenagers arrived, puffing and panting, at the St. Gabriel Middle School's main hallway.

"Looks like I beat you again," Athrun said smugly to a flushed Cagalli.

"And I thought making small, happy talk would distract you. Geez."

The blue-haired teen's self-satisfied smile suddenly faded as he looked past Cagalli. "Well, you might need to make small, not-so-happy talk now. There's Lacus Clyne at twelve o' clock."

Cagalli rolled her eyes. She and Athrun had known Lacus since they had first started school. Athrun's family, in particular, had quite the connection with the Clynes, with Patrick Zala and Lacus's father Siegel Clyne being business partners. That being the case, the three often got together and enjoyed each other's company.

Until Lacus had decided to turn into, using Cagalli's own words, "an insanely spoiled brat" during fourth grade, that is, and started to compete with the blonde in almost every area possible, including the "smart-mouth department", as Athrun had put it once.

"Don't talk to her," Cagalli said under her breath. "Don't even look at her, and she won't come."

Unfortunately, she was proven otherwise, for the blue-eyed teenager with long pink tresses chose that moment to anger the former.

"Hello, Athrun," Lacus said, in that sweet, innocent voice that made Cagalli want to throw up. "How are you?"

"Uh… Fine, great," he answered uncertainly. "You?"

Lacus fingered the golden clip on her hair. "As much as I want to say I'm fine, I just _can't_ bring myself to lie. I'm afraid your friend here just ruined my morning," she said with a derisive look (that she still managed to make seemingly innocent) at Cagalli's direction.

The blonde clenched her fists. "Oh, I could ruin more than your morning, Lacus. Why don't I try your face?"

"Always the aggressive one, are we, Cagalli?" Lacus said, unfazed by the remark. "Well, Athrun, it was nice talking to you. I'll take my leave now, or risk having _more than my morning_ ruined." She started to walk away, but paused. "Oh, and just a warning: If you get too close, she might like you, and you do _not_ want that."

Athrun gave her a small smile. "Well, if you must know, Lacus, assuming Cagalli did like me, I wouldn't mind at all. Now, if, say, _you_ end up liking me, I would not want that, not at all."

Lacus's eyes narrowed. "You are so going to pay for that, Athrun Zala," she snapped, breaking to a trot and walking past him.

"I thought she'd never leave," Athrun said, letting out a relieved sigh. He looked at his best friend.

Something was not quite right with her. She was not praising Athrun for winning the argument of the day with Lacus Clyne, nor was she uttering a string of profanities and planning deadly scenarios for Lacus Clyne. Instead she just stood, open-mouthed, and… Was that a blush Athrun was seeing?

Cagalli had not heard much after Athrun's comment about Cagalli taking a fancy towards him. It had not once occurred to her to think of her best friend in that light. Of course, she was well aware of how sought after Athrun was with the ladies, and that he'd turned every single one down because, in truth, he did not want romantic relationships with the opposite sex. Still, she wondered why she had never thought of him _that _way, not even once, in the eight years that they had spent together.

"This is all Lacus Clyne's fault," she mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Um… I didn't say anything," Cagalli said quickly, the red tinge on her cheeks becoming even more noticeable than it already was. "Oh, hey, great job a while ago, it was so kick-ass," she added, hoping to steer the conversation into a safer area.

"It's no problem," Athrun answered, glad that Cagalli was returning to her old, normal self again. "As your substitute brother, I have to protect you at all costs."

"Except for the 'substitute brother' bit, you sound like my bodyguard," the blonde said teasingly. The smirk on her face turned into a smile as she told him, "But I'm glad you haven't gotten tired of protecting me from Lacus Clyne."

"I wouldn't get tired of protecting you from _anyone_," the boy said firmly. "Now come on, I know you need a hug or two."

Cagalli hesitated. _We do this all the time, remember? It doesn't mean anything other than a best friend hug,_ she convinced herself.

_It doesn't mean anything._

She reached out and embraced her best friend, holding him as close as possible. She felt a fluttering feeling in her stomach at the contact.

"Woah, looks like you really do need the hug," Athrun said with a laugh.

"That's pretty much how much I wanna hug Kira again," Cagalli muttered, looking up at Athrun. It was partly true, as she did miss her brother and still felt guilty about not writing him a single letter, but it was partly false also, for a reason she did not really understand.

The hallway suddenly became noisier than usual as a crowd of third-graders decided to play a game of indoor tag.

"Well, that's–"

Before Athrun could say another word, a collision with one of the tag-playing children caused him to stumble forward. Fortunately, his quick reflexes enabled him to plant both palms on the wall to stop him from falling on his best friend.

Unfortunately, he had not counted on having his lips brushing against Cagalli's in the process.

For a moment, time seemed to stop in its tracks. Cagalli felt the softness of the lips that had made contact with hers for the first time. She felt as though her knees were about to give way…

And then, time started back up once again, just as unexpectedly as it had frozen. The boy removed himself from his awkward position and stood up straight, nervously rubbing his palm on the back of his neck.

"Cagalli, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, it was a total accident," Athrun stammered, afraid of his best friend's reaction.

But she gave him only the same open-mouthed look he had seen after Lacus had walked away from them earlier.

_Oh no._

"Cagalli? Are you okay?"

The blonde blinked her amber eyes repeatedly, as if waking up from a daydream. "Uh, yeah, yeah, sure I am," she answered distractedly, trying her hardest to hide the excess color on her cheeks. "It's alright, Athrun, I know you wouldn't actually do that on purpose anyway. So… um… Let's just forget about this, okay?"

_Whew, _he thought, relieved that Cagalli did not use the aggressive approach on him and instead calmly told him to forget that he had kissed his best friend.

It was his turn to gape at Cagalli. "Wait. You're not mad? I mean, not that I think you would be, but… You're not mad?" he repeated, evidently surprised at this new development.

"No. Just… surprised, that's all," she answered.

"Yeah, it _is _pretty surprising, huh? I got my first kiss from a _girl_," Athrun said in a low voice, but not failing to sound like the concept of him kissing Cagalli was absolutely unheard of.

"Uh-huh," she said, feeling the heat rise to her face yet again.

_My best friend just kissed me._

_No, I just kissed my best friend._

_I'd give anything to do it again._

And that was the day Cagalli Yula Attha would not forget any time soon ­_– _the day she started to feel something different for her "substitute brother", Athrun Zala.

* * *

a/n: Okay, I take back what I said last time, _this_ is longer than my usual. Well, hope you guys like it. Hope it doesn't seem too rushed. Tell me what you think about Fllay and Lacus, too. Personality switching, much? But I love Lacus too much to make her evil, so she'll mellow down a bit and be back to her old, lovable self soon. Very soon. :D

Oh, yeah, to answer steshin's review, I'm too lazy to type up my non-fanfiction stories. LOL. But I will try, though. Watch your e-mail!


	5. Crippling Grief

Disclaimer: Gundam Seed, or any other trademarks mentioned, I do not own. And that's that.

a/n: Uh-oh. Another hiatus. Well, what can I say? College takes away precious and much-needed fiction-contemplating time. Do not ask me where I was during my three-week semestral break. XD Aaaanyway...

* * *

Chapter 5 Crippling Grief

"What do you think of... whenever you're out here on the beach?"

The question was one Fllay had wanted to ask her brown-haired, amethyst-eyed companion for as long as she could remember. Yet only at that moment were the words able to find their way out of her mouth.

Fourteen year-old Kira, folding his arms and lying face up on the sand, fumbled in his mind for a suitable answer.

"Me? I think about... stuff."

And the above statement was far from being suitable.

"Oh," Fllay said, choosing not to pry further. Apparently even the boy's contemplations were under lock and key to anyone but himself.

But as the red-haired girl shifted her position, so she was sitting up and hugging her knees, Kira made to elaborate.

"Every day I try and imagine what became of my family in Orb. Who's been using my room? Did my favorite ice cream store close down while I was gone? Do my friends from daycare still remember me? Has my father ever gotten around to telling my sister to write me a letter?"

Fllay's head tilted to the side in wonder at the word 'sister'. This she had never heard Kira mention, not even once, to her in the last nine years. "You have a sister? What does she look like?"

The boy squeezed his eyes shut and tried to pull an image of Cagalli from one of the many memories he kept in his head. "Her hair's short and blonde and she almost never combs it herself. She's thin for her age, mostly 'cause she never eats much. And her eyes, well... You know how toast looks like when it's golden-brown? They aren't like that at all. But I think golden-brown is the right color."

"Does she... not like you, or something? Seeing as she never wrote to you?"

A sigh escaped through Kira's lips. "I don't know, Fllay. I used to think she loved me as much, if not more, than a twin sister would his brother. It seemed that way, it really did. But ever since I was exiled here... I don't know anymore."

The girl could not help but frown at Kira's last statement. "Is that what you really think of this?" she motioned, with a quick wave of her hand, to the log house and to the vast expanse of sea they were facing. "An exile? A life sentence?"

"It's not a _life_ sentence, of course," Kira said pointedly.

"Well, you make it seem as if it were."

Without warning, Kira stood up, both his hands curled into fists at his sides. "What do you expect of me, then?" he said stiffly. And without waiting for a response, he broke into a run, leaving Fllay alone on the patch of sand where, before her last remark, two people had sat on.

* * *

_"Father!" five-year-old Cagalli called, repeating the word with her voice an octave higher as she trotted to Uzumi Nara Attha's study. "Father!"_

_She flung open the heavy, wooden double doors with her little hands as soon as she caught sight of them._

_"Yes... Cagalli?" _

_It was not her father who had spoken, but one of his many muscle-bound bodyguards, who, at the moment, was standing as tall as bamboo and seemed to do nothing else._

_"Kisaka! Where's my father?" Cagalli demanded, manipulating (or at least, attempting to) her voice so it sounded older.  
_

_Kisaka was, of course, trained to fare well in battles with assailants much more capable than himself in order to protect his principal; much less to manage his principal's headstrong daughter._

_"He'll be back some time after dinner," he answered shortly. "He just has an important matter to attend to."_

_"Is my brother included in that 'important matter'? Why don't I get to be in on it?" A pout appeared on the child's lips. "Besides, isn't it _already _after dinner?"_

_She was, however, a little less anxious than a few moments ago, after Kira - with a rueful look in his eyes - had given her what felt like a goodbye hug. She shuddered at the word "goodbye". What had that been for, anyway?_

_The bodyguard blinked once. "Oh. Yes, right. It is, isn't it?"_

_Cagalli could not suppress a giggle at the thought of her father's bodyguard being food-deprived. "You haven't eaten, have you?"_

_"Well, no," he admitted, a sheepish grin breaking the straight face he always put on._

_"Wait here, I'll get you something to eat," Cagalli told him, temporarily shoving the uneasiness at the back of her mind for the meantime, wanting to do a good deed for a member of Uzumi's trusted staff. She actually felt a twinge of momentary happiness as she skipped out of the room to the kitchen._

_The skipping stopped short at the front door as it opened, her father on the other side of it. (A flash of lightning and a clap of thunder followed, as if on cue. The sight was not much of a surprise, though; it had been raining torrents for almost an hour already.)  
_

_He looked as though he had been crying; he even seemed on the verge of shedding more tears, as his shoulders trembled visibly enough for Cagalli to see._

_The girl opened her mouth to ask Uzumi what the problem was, and failed to upon making one glaring observation._

_Her twin brother was not with him._

_A different, almost automatic question replaced her unasked one. "Where's Kira?"_

_"Kira... Funny you should... ask that, Cagalli," Uzumi said, deflecting it. His bottom lip was quivering then, and he had to chew on it to make it stop._

_"Where is he, Father? _Where is he?_"_

_He exhaled sharply. "I... I had to... send him to an orphanage."_

_And then Cagalli's uneasiness had all too quickly resurfaced, but in a more extreme form: sudden, unexplainable grief._

_"You... what?"_

_Uzumi stood, waiting for the information to sink in his daughter's brain. When it did, he anticipated the flare of anger she was about to direct at him._

_The stream of tears spilled down her face as she yelled. "Why did you do that?! Kira doesn't have to be in an orphanage! He didn't do anything wrong! And you know it!"_

_"I know he didn't, Cagalli," the representative answered calmly - or at least as calm as he could without having to cry right along with the child. "I had to do it. For the sake of our country, it has to be done. If I could, you know I wouldn't... But you wouldn't understand it yet, if I told you now."_

_As it turned out, Uzumi was right to not tell the girl about the underlying reasons for Kira's exile. Everything he had said was gibberish to Cagalli at the moment, as far as she was concerned._

_Her mind, clouded as it was with too much emotion for a five-year-old, was coherent enough for just three words. Three little words that, when put together, could very easily deal a huge blow to any parent's heart.  
_

_"_I hate you._"_

_And with that, she bolted out of the open door, out into the rain, her father still rooted to the spot, unable to stop her._

_Cagalli ran, her sense of direction - or lack thereof - leading her to wherever it wanted her to go. The rainwater blended in effortlessly with her tears, so it was impossible to tell which was which anymore. As if she cared. The sound of rain pounding on the ground was deafening enough to take in as it was.  
_

_She ran, until her little feet could not take it any longer. She closed her eyes. The rain was getting to be annoying, making her eyes sting. Or maybe it was the tears. But did it really matter to her then?  
_

_Just as she found the thought of lying on the ground tempting, she heard her name being called._

_"Cagalli! Cagalli, there you are! I've been looking all over for you," Athrun's familiar - older? - voice made itself heard over the downpour. "Why'd you run off this time?"_

_Cagalli opened her eyes, and to her surprise, found that it _was_ fourteen-year-old Athrun looking down at her, an umbrella over him, and of course at her then, too. She bit her lip. "I... Kira... I miss Kira."_

_She blinked. She sounded not five, but fourteen as well. And it seemed that she was indeed of that age, as the boy did not stare as low as he would have at her five-year-old height._

_"Of course you do. I mean, I would, if I had a sister. Actually, I _do_ have one. You. And do you know how worried I get when you suddenly get lost? Like now, for instance." Athrun gave her a stern look as he said this, but the relief on his features at seeing the girl safe was evident. "I know it's pointless to tell you not to do it again, but don't do it again. Seriously."_

_"Okay, _okay_, I get it. Brother," she muttered under her breath. He couldn't seriously think she could still see him as a _brother_ after that accidental... predicament a few days ago._

_Athrun laughed at his best friend's childish-ness, which triggered the warmth to travel to the said best friend's cheeks. _

_She looked up, not realizing the lack of distance between the two of them. "W-What?" she stammered as she saw, too late, how close those darned lips were to her own._

_Apparently Athrun had noticed this as well, since he looked as surprised as she felt. With the shock still not quite gone from his face, he whispered, "Oh, nothing," and leaned ever closer..._

*****

"Cagalli? Cagalli, wake up."

The girl groaned, hiding under herself under her thick blanket, ignoring Athrun's efforts to wake her from her dream - which he had managed successfully, as Cagalli had not a chance to get to the wonderful, wonderful part of kissing her best friend...

_Wait a minute!_

She kicked away the covers in much less time than a minute, and sat up on her bed.

Athrun Zala was sitting at the foot of it, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Athrun? _What _exactly are you doing in my room?" Cagalli demanded, with a voice so groggy it was as though she had not gotten much sleep at all.

"Well, no one told me I couldn't," he said with a shrug. A smirk crossed his lips. "What, it's not like I'm gonna try and _do _anything. Not to _you_, anyway."

"Ha ha. You're cracking inside jokes now, Zala?" she said, with a roll of the eyes. "Anyway, what _are _you doing here at," her eyes darted to her alarm clock on her bedside table, "seven in the morning? On a _Sunday_?"

For Cagalli, and probably a good number of teenagers would agree, seven was an ungodly hour to wake up on a weekend. And Athrun - the one who supposedly was not a morning person - doing the waking was much, much more ungodly.

"I don't know, I think I have a case of sleep-onset insomnia."

She blinked once, uncomprehending exactly what she had heard. "Could you _please _spare me the geek speak?"

It was Athrun's turn to roll his eyes. "I fell asleep for a few hours, woke up at five in the morning, and couldn't go back to sleep anymore. How's that?"

"Better. I actually get it."

"But I doubt you've tried it lately. I mean, judging from that big, satisfied smile on your face while you were sleeping, you must have had a pretty good dream, huh?"

Cagalli blinked again, rapidly and repeatedly this time. "I was _smiling_?" _Of course I was, at the thought of kissing you again._ The heat immediately rose to her cheeks.

"Uh, yeah, it was great. I dreamt I was locked up in Disneyland for a night," she lied.

Athrun snorted. "More like a hot supermodel guy kissed..." He stopped short. "Oops. Forbidden word. Forgot."

"Really, Athrun, it wasn't a big deal at all. You don't have to resort to _not _saying the word in front of me. It's unnecessary." _Yeah, 'cause I just happen to like it when you mention "kissing", _her mind taunted.

"Alright, then. But let's not talk about it already. I'm guilty enough already."

"It's not your fault."

"Moving on," the boy said, dropping the topic completely, "I want to go somewhere today. Thing is, I want you to come with me."

"Like, right now?"

"Yeah, like, right now."

"Where?" Cagalli asked, suspicious of where all of this was headed. Athrun was being more secretive than he usually was.

As if his 'usual' wasn't mysterious enough. Even for his best friend.

"You'll see. We'll leave after you get some breakfast."

"No need," the girl said calmly. "I _want _to see where you're taking me, and breakfast is a delaying tactic. Now get out."

Athrun's brow shot up for the second time that morning. "Why?"

"You don't seriously think I'm gonna let you stay here while I shower and change clothes, do you?"

He chuckled. "You _could_."

Cagalli stuck out her tongue. "But I won't. So, out."

"Sure," Athrun answered, standing up and walking to the door. He twisted the doorknob and stepped out, pausing to say, "I'm _really_ sorry about the k... the incident.", and closed the door without waiting for an answer.

He walked down the hall, his head down and his hands deep in his pockets.

Of course he was guilty as hell for what had happened, no matter how Cagalli tried to convince him it meant nothing at all to her. _That_ he did not believe in the least bit. He noticed a new expression on his best friend's face since the ki...

_The accident,_ he scolded himself. _I have no idea what that look on her means, but I know it isn't anything good. She must want to _kill_ me, and she's just _not_ doing it to keep the friendship._

Well, the fact that he was still alive was something to be thankful for, wasn't it? And the other fact that Cagalli had kept his closely-guarded secret... closely guarded. That was another thing he owed her. Big time.

Because if his father Patrick Zala, ever found out, the beating he had suffered when he was five would pass off as a trip to the carnival compared to whatever his parent would surely put him through.

Not to mention the societal rejection he would surely face when the news would leak out. He imagined everyone he passed by the hallways at school giving him disgusted looks. He shuddered.

"Don't think about that right now, Athrun. Worry about it when it happens. Just not right now," he mumbled to himself, unable to continue a mental run-through of the possibilities his imagination was coming up with.

"I leave you for fifteen minutes and already you've lost a few screws?"

Athrun could almost make out the smirk in Cagalli's voice then, if at all possible. He looked up at the grand Attha staircase.

"Well, you can't blame me for being paranoid..." He trailed off, unable to stop staring at his best friend in shock.

It was not that she didn't look pretty... beautiful... in a little yellow sundress; it was that Athrun had never thought he would see the day Cagalli would actually choose, of her own free will, to wear a dress.

"What, you don't like it? You don't like it, do you?" Cagalli said, the familiar pout on her lips. She muttered something about having no more jeans to wear, followed by a string of profanities for not having more denim.

"Oh, it's not that. You look... pretty."

"Humor me," she answered, rolling her eyes again. She walked down the stairs with a grace Athrun had not noticed her capable of before then. Or maybe it was the dress, refusing to release him from the state of shock he was under.

"You might want to bring some flowers," the boy said, picking up a bouquet from the living room table, where he had placed it earlier that morning when he came in. "Alright, let's go."

"We're walking?"

"Yes, we are walking. It's not far."

"Okaaaaay then," Cagalli said, still puzzled about the whole thing. She was not big at analyzing Athrun, since he did not need analyzing most of the time.

That day was definitely not most of the time.

They both walked out of the front doors, which were open for the day to let the morning air in. Cagalli thought of the possible places that were "not far", according to Athrun. There was school, but what in the world would they be there for on a Sunday? There was also the ice cream parlor, but they had flowers - definitely not there.

Which left the many neighbors' houses and the cemetery. Oh, _that _narrowed it down.

Then it dawned on her. The cemetery.

Cagalli wanted to smack herself on the head. Of course. Athrun wanted her to visit her mother. That day was the day her mother died. And Athrun would remember it himself, because it was also the day his father...

"Athrun, thanks for reminding me," she muttered, her head down. "I can't believe I'd forgotten. Again."

He smiled. "Don't mention it. I'm pretty much used to your short-term memory, anyway."

"And _I'm_ pretty much used to _you_, period."

"Good point."

"Hey, Athrun? Can I... ask you something?" Cagalli asked, on a whim, not even thinking it through.

"Sure, anything," Athrun replied with a nonchalant shrug.

"How did the... the... the kiss... feel?"

His brisk walk stopped abruptly. Cagalli had to retrace a few steps. She waited patiently for an answer.

"Um... odd," Athrun said.

"Odd?"

"Yeah."

"Was it the good kind of odd? Or the bad kind?" _'Cause it was definitely a good odd, in my opinion._

Athrun thought it through. "Well. It was a nice kind of odd."

"And you're saying that as a guy, or as a _girl_?"

"Oh, you _know_ I was looking at it as a... guy... would."

Cagalli forced a smile. "Sorry. I just have to make sure. Just in case I meet a guy I'd like to kiss someday."

"You are _not_ gonna go and kiss some random guy unless I know for sure he's safe," Athrun said sternly, his voice similar to the one conjured up by Cagalli's dream.

"Sure, sure, oh great and mighty substitute brother of mine." This was said as sarcastic as possible.

He couldn't suppress a laugh. "Now, come on, we're almost there."

They continued walking to the memorial park, bringing up topics that were as random as they could get. Anything to avoid _that _particular conversation from doing an encore.

Cagalli's eyes strayed to the spot she was sure her mother's grave was as they entered through the gates. Her memories of the funeral flashed before her. She made to take her eyes off the area to avoid remembering any more; at that instant of hesitation, a sight of an all-too-familiar shade of brown caught her attention.

A boy, tall and a bit lanky, with chocolate-brown hair was laying down a bouquet of daisies at the foot of the grave stone. His head hung low as he knelt over the flowers. The shaking of his shoulders gave him away; he was crying for Cagalli's mother.

No, he was crying for his own mother.

Cagalli continued to stare, not certain whether to conclude that the boy was who she thought he was.

Another moment of hesitation. This time, it came from the teenage boy. In the midst of his grief he looked up, amethyst eyes meeting amber, for the first time in almost a decade.

Different emotions were evident in his eyes, there and gone in such short spans of time. Shock, followed by a painful longing... and then a careful blankness.

He abruptly looked away from Cagalli, turned, and ran away, passing by the other exit across the entrance she and Athrun had passed through, no doubt.

"Cagalli?" Athrun called. Preoccupied with his own thoughts, he had not seen the girl stop walking until a few seconds ago. "Cagalli, are you all right?"

His best friend blinked. "Athrun."

"Yeah?"

"I... saw someone... crying over Mother's grave."

Athrun's head tilted to the side in interest. "Really? Do you know who he was? Or she?"

"Yeah. It was a 'he'," Cagalli said, her voice flat and seemingly emotionless.

"Cagalli, something wrong? Is there something about the guy who went to your mom's grave?"

The girl looked up at him. To his shock, Cagalli was holding back tears. Athrun could only look back, questioning her with his eyes.

"Athrun."

"What is it? Who did you see?"

Cagalli no longer made any effort to keep her tears in check. "It was... It was _Kira_, Athrun. _It was my brother_."

* * *

a/n: Oh. Nice cliffie. LOL. No matter how long I say my chapters get, it will always be too short. I noticed that much. Anyway, this is pretty much a chapter made on a whim, since I'm procrastinating because I only have, what, twenty-four hours left till the end of sem. break, I think.

Well, to answer the anonymous reviews, then I'm off to hit the sack. :D

**animelover** - Well... umm... That would depend on my mood, really. But I'll try and set my mood right so I can make this story progress faster. Can't promise, though, since I'm not having the time of my life in College. XD And yeah, is my plot really that predictable? The part about Athrun and Cagalli, I mean. LOL.

**adrienne** - Yeah, Pinoy, that I am. But I have trouble speaking - or typing - the language. XD And yeah, I based the title off a song by Parokya. I'm glad you like my fics. :D

**M.S Arashi Sumeragi** - Haha, yes, Lacus is evil here. Sort of. Although it pains me for her to be the antagonist. It just seemed fun, though. Unfortunately she won't be bad for long. She just ends up bring... misunderstood. Or something. You'll see. But as for the hiatus... well... I'm not sure. But yeah I WILL try. :D

Again, my bad for the typos, if (m)any. XD


	6. The Not So Secret Life Of Lacus Clyne

a/n: I don't seriously have to do a disclaimer every chapter, do I? Anyway... Yes, feel free to throw me tomatoes, rotten eggs, pitchforks, etc. for hiatus-ing again. And if you didn't think of doing that in the first place, darn, I just gave you an idea. Oh well. Forgive me. Enjoy the sixth chapter and kill me when you're done. Ehehe.

* * *

Chapter 6 The Not-So-Secret Life Of Lacus Clyne

"Cagalli," Athrun said firmly, locking his eyes with his best friend's frantic, teary ones. "Are you sure it was him?"

The girl pursed her lips, holding back a sob. "I don't know. I... Maybe I was just mistaken. He can't possibly..."

She found herself unable to say any more. All rational thoughts were shoved at the back of her mind as Athrun reached for her, letting Cagalli's tears - and her sorrow right along with it - flow to his chest. Perhaps he could share her pain, somehow...

"It's okay," Athrun breathed into Cagalli's ear as he ran his fingers through her blonde hair soothingly. "You must miss him a lot."

Cagalli said a muffled "Yeah" in agreement. She sniffed, pulled away from Athrun's arms, and took a step back. "Well, that was embarrassing," she muttered, hurriedly wiping her flushed, tear-stained cheeks with the back of her hand.

Athrun cracked a smug smile. "No kidding. I haven't seen you cry since we were five. Not that I mind," he added quickly, seeing the pout start to appear on Cagalli's lips.

She rolled her eyes, the pout replaced by a little grin. She formed a W with her fingers and mouthed, "Whatever."

The boy let it go then. They both walked to the grave of Cagalli's mother and laid the flowers there, beside the daisies the mysterious boy had left. The walk back home was silent, Cagalli staring fixedly at the ground and Athrun shoving his hands in his pants pockets.

"Um..."

Athrun looked up, startled that the girl had spoken. Or at least made a sound. "Yeah?"

"I really hope that wasn't Kira back there, Athrun."

His eyebrows shot up at the remark. _I thought she missed him._ "Why not?"

Cagalli bit her lip. Athrun was about tell her off, thinking she'd have a bloody lower lip if she kept doing that.

The blonde looked up, and he pushed the the thought away completely. "It's in the Orb constitution. An eleven-year exile from the homeland, that's the requirement to be representative of the country. If it's true that Kira has set foot here, in Onogoro..."

Athrun did not even have to hear her finish. He had already figured it out.

_All those years Cagalli's brother was gone, that would've been for nothing, _he thought. _Because he wouldn't be able to rule Orb._

* * *

"That Lacus Clyne... Ugh, if I had no shame I would've wrung that pretty neck of hers by now!" Sixteen year-old Cagalli huffed, crossing her arms as her eyes glared daggers at Lacus's retreating back.

It had been two years since that fateful day she had seen her brother, and even then she was not entirely sure if it was indeed Kira who had stared at her with those cold violet eyes... She shook her head, hoping to shake off the memory while she did.

"You _always_ want to wring her neck. I'm not at all surprised," Athrun said, picking up a couple of books from his locker with one hand and using the other to shut it. "You know, I feel sorry her for sometimes."

He found Cagalli's death glare divert to him at the remark, almost making him take back what he'd said. "You _do_?" she demanded, souding as appalled as she would have if Athrun had just confessed his undying love for her. _Which will, of course, _never _happen unless he suddenly becomes a straight man once again, _she thought ruefully.

Her darned crush on the blue-haired, pale-skinned teenager had not faded at all in the last twenty-four months. If anything, it had only grown stronger - not to mention more difficult to curb.

"Uh, yeah," Athrun answered, nervously scratching his head. "I think she's been like that because of something that might have happened in the past."

"Well, gives her no excuse to be a bitch, really."

"True, but there's no helping it if there are people like that." He started to walk away, then paused to give his best friend an "Are you coming?" look.

Cagalli blinked. She had been staring. Again. She silently reprimanded herself as she fell into step beside Athrun. "I suppose you could be right," she told him, continuing the conversation (and hoping the boy would forget she had checked him out). "I did notice her remarks today were more scathing than they usually were. Wonder what's eating her..."

Athrun let out a chuckle. The girl raised an eyebrow at him. "What?" she said through her frown.

"Oh, I just thought... You were actually enlightened, with one sentence, about a fact you'd never noticed even through years of interaction with her. That maybe, just maybe, there's more to Lacus Clyne under the surface."

"And you're telling me this, because...?"

He shrugged. "Today's her birthday," he said simply.

Cagalli's frown reappeared. _Great, _now _I have to deal with guilt, among other things._ She scoffed. "Still gives her no excuse to be a bitch."

Athrun rolled his eyes. "Some things never change."

* * *

At the end of last period, Lacus Clyne watched as a certain blonde girl and a blue-haired boy ran down the hallway, the former shouting, "Last one out pays for ice creeeeam!"

_How immature,_ she thought, with a roll of the eyes. Yet she looked on wistfully, perhaps wanting to be part of their seemingly carefree lives.

The girl had not always been at odds with Athrun Zala (the information technology tycoon Patrick Zala's son) and Cagalli Yula Attha (the Orb representative's daughter). In fact, there had been a time when they were good friends...

Lacus banished the thought. All that had been in the past. There was no point in wondering what could have been, what _would_ have been if she hadn't turned on them during the fourth grade. She folded her arms across her chest. _I only did that because they weren't around when I needed them the most. Some friends they were._

She sighed sharply and squeezed her eyes shut, refusing to see her fourth-grade memories of her parents fighting and her mother packing playing like a slide show in her mind.

She started to make her way out of the school, taking graceful steps that only _the _Lacus Clyne could pull off. She smiled at the people who said "Hi" or uttered "Bye" on the way. Was she popular? Perhaps. But she wanted to think she was genuinely well-liked, not envied.

Lacus was only ever mean to Cagalli and Athrun; everyone else could not possibly imagine why the two hated her the way they did.

"Ms. Lacus, are you ready to go?" the chauffeur asked politely. "Your father requested that you accompany him to the Attha house this evening," he added.

"Really, Jack?" The pink-haired lady looked at him quizically. She said a quick "Thank you" as the car door was opened for her. "Is there some sort of occasion?"

Jack waited until he was at the driver's seat and turning the key on the ignition before he spoke. "I suppose it's a small gathering for Representative Attha's friends."

Lacus sighed, at the thought of having to encounter _those two_ again. Where Cagalli was, Athrun would be close by. It was an established fact of life, practically.

She would have to be obliged to raze hell on both of them again. But truth be told, for her the whole thing was getting old. She had been fed up with launching hurtful remarks towards Cagalli and taunting ones to Athrun a long time ago. Yet she could not just throw in the towel and let them off that easily. They deserved what they got from her, for being conspicuously absent when she had need of them. Not that she would ever tell them. The reason she was vindictive to Athrun and Cagalli would remain her own little mystery.

"Lacus?"

She blinked, looking at Siegel Clyne's reflection in her vanity mirror as she brushed her pink tresses. "Yes, Father?"

The man smiled, and Lacus knew then who she inherited her own from. "Nothing much. I'm just a bit shocked at how much you've grown... You're still my little princess, and yet you're not at all little anymore."

His daughter laughed lightly. "Oh, Daddy. What made you say something like that?"

Siegel's smile remained, though it came out a little sadder. "I'm not sure. Maybe it's because you've just turned sixteen..." He ruffled Lacus's hair playfully. "Now come on, then. When you're ready, we're going straight to the Atthas' for dinner. And we'll have our own celebration when we get back."

"Speaking of the Atthas, what's the occasion?"

"Well, apparently, Uzumi's son is back from an eleven-year trip from a neighboring country," he answered, crossing the room and heading out the door. "I'll be waiting downstairs."

Lacus stood up, straightening nonexistent wrinkles from the hem of her simple but elegant white cocktail dress. "No, let's go, Father. I'm ready."

She could have cared less about Cagalli's brother being back from some country or other; so she could not possibly be excited to go for that reason. And yet, it was as if something inside was urging her to hurry or she would miss something. Something synonymous to "once in a lifetime".

And God knows how tired she was of wondering what could have been...

The girl's gaze fell on the Attha mansion doors, as the Clyne limousine slowed to a stop in front of it. She noted the presence of two particular individuals barely inside the stately place_. _

_Now or never, _she thought, stepping out through the car door Jack had opened for her. After she and Siegel greeted the Representative, her father gave Lacus a gentle squeeze on her arm, signalling that she could go off on her own.

Of course, she made her way to Cagalli (who was obviously uncomfortable in her dress) and Athrun (who was obviously trying to take his companion's mind off her dress situation) to initiate the second argument of the day - and win it, as she always did. The ghost of a triumphant smile was on her lips, then, when she felt her arm brush against someone else's.

"Oh! I'm sorry..." She looked up, meeting a set of eyes the color of aubergine. She found herself unable to say any more.

"Ah, no, it's my fault."

Lacus moved her eyes away from her new acquaintance and noticed his other features. His hair, a dark shade of brown, was unkempt, and the girl had a feeling it had always been that way. His skin was of a slight tan color, as if he had spent most of his life on the beach.

No, she most certainly was not familiar with this person.

_Be polite, say something_, her good-mannered mind prodded. She gave him a little smile. "I don't believe we've met? I'm Lacus Clyne."

She held out her hand, which was taken graciously. "Nice to meet you, Lacus. I'm-"

"Hey, hey, stay away from him," Cagalli cut in, suddenly appearing beside the boy.

"Hello, Cagalli." Lacus tried to sound icy, but of course the greeting came out as sweet as it always was. "Perhaps _you'd_ like to introduce us?"

The Orb princess groaned. "Fine. But only when you're done shaking hands," she added with a slight sneer in her voice.

Lacus was taken aback at the remark. She hastily removed her hand from the boy's then.

"I'm sorry," they said together.

Cagalli couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Well, as you already know, this is Lacus Clyne," she said, turning to the boy - who looked quite like her, Lacus noted.

"And Lacus, this is Kira Yula Attha. My brother."

_Her brother._ So this was the cause of all the celebration. "I see. It's nice to meet you, too, Kira."

To her surprise, Kira stared back at her in a seemingly detached manner. Was it something she said? "Um, I'm sorry, I have to excuse myself." With a quick, half-hearted smile he said, "It _was_ a pleasure, Lacus," and brushed past her.

For some reason, the girl felt her chest tighten as she remembered those cool eyes. _If looks could kill... _She shuddered.

She looked at Cagalli, who looked as shocked as she felt. She even looked on the verge of tears, and Lacus almost wanted to console her for whatever her problem was.

Almost.

Instead, she said, "I noticed you don't have the best brother-and-sister relationship."

Cagalli didn't seem to mind, right then, that Lacus was making a judgmental observation. Which was unusual for her, since most anything Lacus said was likely to tick her off.

"Eleven years apart does that to you," was all the blonde said before she turned on her heels (yes, heels) and walked away, looking for Athrun most probably.

Lacus frowned thoughtfully. Perhaps there was a lot more to the tomboyish Cagalli Yula Attha than she knew. A secret, maybe? Something she could use to her advantage?

Whatever it was, Lacus Clyne would certainly find out.

* * *

a/n: Well, I'm saving the Athrun-and-Kira interaction for the next chapters. So yeah. Hope you liked. And I still write on a whim, so the next update is... indefinite. (dodges tomatoes, rotten eggs, pitchforks and other unknown things) I need to have my thoughts collected through meditation and other whatnot. Haha. Till then. :)


	7. The Plot Thickens

a/n: Two updates in a month? Who would have thought? Anyway, not much to say here, except that this chapter is quite longer than my usual. Hope you guys like it.

* * *

Chapter 7 The Plot Thickens

He would be starting school the next day, Kira's father Uzumi had said, after the last of his guests stepped out of the manor that night. Finally, a real school. The last eleven years of his life he had been under the tutelage of Reverend Malchio who, although he had more to offer than the average elementary teacher, could not compare to the feeling of studying in an actual learning institution, with its blackboards, hallways, lockers and all the other telltale things that could possibly be associated with it...

Kira had been miserable, more so than he already was, when Fllay was taken to be adopted by an elderly, childless man who happened to be a good friend of the reverend. _George Allster, was it?_ And that was that; she - the only one he had who was as close to a friend to him - left, and the boy blamed himself for not having the heart to apologize before she did. That night on the beach would haunt him forever, of that much he was certain.

And then suddenly, twenty-four months later, he had heard footsteps approaching him as he sat staring at the sea, like he always did. _And I looked up to find my father's eyes._ _Just like that, I found I was finally going home._

He thought then that he would finally find happiness, that the gaping hole inside himself (made from being absent from his family for the longest time) would magically disappear.

But as he met those golden eyes, those that belonged to his twin sister, all he harbored in his heart was resentment. Nothing she said would help her, it was much too late.

He had already been scarred by her neglect.

He ran a hand through his rumpled-as-usual hair, frowning at an unopened envelope that lay on his desk. It was a letter from Cagalli, which he'd received one day before Uzumi's arrival. But again, it was much too late.

The sixteen year-old boy crossed the room, placed the envelope inside the desk drawer, and flopped down on his bed without bothering to change from his suit-and-tie outift.

_When will you ever forgive her?_ his mind demanded. _No matter how hurt you are, she is still your sister, and you will have to put up with her everyday._

Yet he already had the answer before he'd asked himself the question.

_Not even in eleven years._

* * *

"Athrun, he won't even walk to school with me!" Cagalli said, angrily brushing off a tear trailing down her cheek. What was it with the crying thing? She was never much of a fun of letting out sad emotions, and yet the night before that was exactly what he did - to her pillow. Her eyes felt dangerously heavy. _I'm probably gonna fall asleep in Spanish today..._

"Look at it from his point of view," her best friend rationalized. "He was probably always lonely in that orphanage without you. And maybe he waited for your letters, not knowing you weren't going to write him one until you were contented with your handwriting. Keywords: He didn't know." He paused. "And he still doesn't."

The blonde-haired girl let out an exasperated "Ughhhh". "I _tried_ to explain. I tried to talk to him last night, after the party, but he just slammed the door in my face. Maybe he never read that letter I did manage to send him."

Athrun crossed his arms as they continued their three-kilometer journey to the school gates. He and Kira had exchanged barely five words the night before, save their introductions. That had been _six _words. Thus, there was not much the raven-haired teenager could say about him.

"Give it a few days. I'm sure he misses you more than he hates you. He'll cave in soon," he assured Cagalli, giving her a comforting pat on the back, which of course made shivers run up her spine - as was always the case when it came to Athrun, Cagalli, and physical contact.

"A-And what makes you think he hates me? That's a really strong word." _Oh no, but what if he _does_? _she could not help but question.

Athrun winced. "Sorry. You're right, it's probably not that bad." He did a sideway glance and saw her frown. _Darn. I need a distraction..._ "Bet you can't beat me this time, Cagalli, judging by how you're holding up right now." This statement was accompanied by the appropriate, self-confident smirk which would surely challenge the girl.

"Situation," she scoffed. "No 'situation' is gonna make me lose to you, Zala." She mirrored his smug smile as her eyes, red and puffy though they were, stared determinedly at Athrun's bright green ones.

_Score._

A little hesitation (She, of course, secretly wanted time to freeze with their eyes locked.), but she finally looked away and bolted. "Better run for it, Athrun! It's starting to rain!"

And as if to confirm what she'd said, a single fat raindrop fell from the heavens unto his forearm.

_Best give her a head start,_ the boy thought. On any other day, he would have always won their races to school. But right then he would have cared less.

After all, he was her honorary substitute brother. _And since the real one isn't living up to his purpose, I guess I'm keeping the position._

* * *

Even the cold, gloomy weather the nimbus and cumulus clouds brought that morning seemed unable to penetrate Lacus's good mood. While everyone else was moaning and groaning about the mud on their shoes and the frigid atmosphere in general, she flashed her warm smile as she crossed the hallway to her locker.

Her aforementioned good mood escalated, much to her surprise, when she caught sight of a familiar mane of brown hair. Perhaps she could start her Cagalli-sleuthing a bit earlier...

"Hello there," the pink-haired girl greeted. "Kira, isn't it?"

The boy looked up, startled that he was being approached. He gave Lacus an "Are you talking to me?" look before he realized, of course she was; she had just said his name.

He blinked. "That's right. Hi, Lacus," he answered, a bit shakily. He raised to his eyes the crumpled piece of paper he held, a nervous look in his eyes.

"You seem to be having trouble. Is that your class schedule?" Seeing Kira's nod, she held out her hand. "Give it here, then. Oh," she said, her eyes scanning the paper. And then, a chuckle. "It seems you've been standing in front of your first class the whole time."

"I was?" Kira said, dumbfounded. He turned his head to where he had just discovered was the Spanish classroom. He found that quite a number of students were already inside, some even sitting on their tables while they made pleasant conversation.

"You were."

"Uh..." was all that could escape his lips, as the sound of Lacus's laugh echoed through his mind. It was like nothing he had heard before. _Blame that on having minimal contact with girls, and the general populace. _

The first bell rang then, and Kira seemed suddenly aware of his now-awkward situation. "Thanks. So, uh, I guess I'll be off now."

"Oh, don't be silly. Spanish is my first class, too. We can go together," Lacus suggested.

_To refuse an offer is an insult_, Kira thought_. Besides, there's something about her_... "Okay, then. That would be great." He made an effort to smile back at his new friend as they made to enter the room.

Just then, a commotion behind them broke the normalcy of the morning. Said commotion was, of course, coming from two teenagers who stood soaked and dripping on the main hallway.

Lacus could not hide the distate on her face as she saw people crowd around the two. _Did they have to try that hard to stand out?_ "I suppose you'll have to get used to that everyday. They usually act like third-graders, racing to school and all."

"Cagalli and Athrun... Have they always been like that?"

She knew immediately what her companion meant when she caught sight of the way he looked at them - a gaze that wondered if Athrun had filled in for him as Cagalli's brother when he'd been gone.

"They have. To the point that when you look at one of them, you almost instantly think of the other."

Kira averted his eyes from them and turned his piercing stare towards her. "And if you don't mind me asking, what do you have against them?"

The sudden inquiry caught her off-guard. Was she not the one doing the mystery-solving around here? Lacus merely smiled. "I'll tell you, but in exchange, you have to tell me why you're not on speaking terms with your sister."

The boy fell silent. That had definitely been a sore spot.

"When you're ready, then..." Lacus trailed off, as the only people she disliked finally came within speaking range. Yet, like everything else, their "argument of the day" routine seemed to deviate from their usual; this time, it was actually the blonde-haired princess of Orb who did the initiating.

"Kira, you really should've come with us. We could have shielded you from bad influence," she said, specifically turning to Lacus at the last two words.

"But apparently, you wouldn't have been able to shield him from the rain," was Lacus's reply, with the complimentary smirk and the head-to-toe observation at Cagalli's soaking self.

"I happen to like her, but thank you for the concern, Cagalli."

Lacus saw his eyes harden, as they did once before. _Ah, so it wasn't my fault he was mad, _she thought with an inward sigh. _It was hers._

"What, you _like _her? You sure about that?" Cagalli said incredulously. That, in itself, was an insult. She would not have her brother, of all people, take a fancy towards her worst (only) enemy.

"N-Not in the way you're thinking," Kira defended. "I mean, her company. I enjoy her company."

Athrun, meanwhile, chose to keep his mouth shut. Evidently this dispute was getting heated enough without his help. He contented himself, instead, with darting his eyes from Cagalli to Lacus to Kira and back again as they spoke. He saw the flush on the brown-haired boy's cheeks as he explained that he did not like Lacus _that _way.

And he found himself unable to look away from that tan face, even as the second bell rang.

"Athrun!" An irritated Cagalli called. "Come on, we have about a minute to change clothes. Athrun!"

"Huh, what? Oh. Yeah, yeah," the blue-haired boy said dazedly. He reluctantly shifted his gaze as he followed Cagalli to their lockers. _What just happened?_

Why wasn't it as easy to look away from him that day? There was nothing about Kira that could be of interest to him. Not when all they shared in a conversation were six words.

_Nothing of interest. Nope, not even those hypnotizing eyes and the way they seem to see right through me, like he already knows who I am, what I am..._

"What does he think he's doing, hanging out with _her_?" his blonde friend grumbled. "Is she his new twin sister now?" she added, opening her locker with the correct three-digit combination, taking out the shirt and jeans she kept inside, and slammed the door shut. All this was done with evident aggression.

"Mm-hmm..."

Cagalli stopped walking and surveyed the boy with a suspicious eye. "And what the heck is eating you? You haven't given me a single, coherent response since the argument of the day started." She placed her palm on his forehead. _Maybe a fever's getting him like this. _"Are you okay?" she asked with concern.

"Yeah, of course," he replied, a bit too quickly for his own liking. He, too, took out his extra clothes from his own locker. _Might as well have the word 'guilt' written all over your face. _"I'm not guilty," he said aloud before he could stop himself.

Cagalli shrugged, and with a roll of the eyes, muttered. "Whatever you say, Athrun." She would have plenty of time to figure out her best friend's case.

The problem at hand was that, apparently, Lacus Clyne was trying to turn the prince of Orb against his own sibling. And, seeing that Kira already had a baggage of animosity towards Cagalli the second he stepped inside his home, she would probably not have much of a hard time at all.

* * *

"School play... Interesting," Kira mused, scanning a particular post on the bulletin board with his eyes_. A Midsummer Night's Dream_ by William Shakespeare. A comedy that featured a love quadrangle of sorts... He vaguely remembered Reverend Malchio narrating the main plot of the story to him, a few years ago.

Lacus smiled, and its effect was becoming more pronounced on the boy each time she did. (But as to what kind it was had yet to be revealed.) "Every year the school holds a different Shakespearean play. Last year it was 'The Merchant of Venice', if I remember correctly."

"Wow, I wonder who's taking the lead role this year," a girl's voice came within earshot as a crowd began to form around the bulletin board.

"I know, right? But I'll bet, like always, it can only be either Cagalli Yula Attha and Lacus Clyne."

At the mention of her name, an evident tinge of pink rose to her cheeks. Though she was well aware of how high she was regarded in their school, she was uncomfortable with the whole setup. If anything, she would often wish she could turn invisible for a while...

"Kevin from the drama club said Mrs. Waltfeld alternates between Cagalli and Lacus, to be fair, apparently."

"I noticed. Wasn't Lacus the lead last year? And during tenth grade Cagalli was Anne Boleyn in 'Henry VIII'."

Kira could not stifle a grin at all the information the gossipers were unknowingly feeding him. He tilted his head to one side, locking his amused eyes on his friend, who he knew then had a passion for theater arts_. _"Do you always look that constipated when you hear people talk about you?"

Lacus's eyes were downcast when she answered, "Oh... Do I?"

"Well, 'constipated' is a bit of an exaggeration."

"I just don't like it when my name and _hers_ are used together in a sentence."

"You hate her that much, then?"

"I could ask you the same thing, with the way you've been treating her," she said, her voice suddenly taking a serious tone. "I don't have any experience with siblings, but you've been away for a long time, haven't you? Don't you miss her, even a little?"

Kira looked backed at her, appalled. How had the conversation shifted to that? Yet no one was more surprised at her words than Lacus, herself. Her goal was to obtain information she could use against Cagalli; not to restore her enemy's strained relationship with her brother.

She wanted to shake her head in disbelief. She just had to stop being too nice.

"I'm sorry. Forget I said anything."

"Don't worry about it," the brown-haired boy said with a shrug. Noticing a certain inseparable pair approaching from behind Lacus, he added, "You have bigger problems."

The problem called Cagalli hid a pained look through narrowed eyes.

"What is it you want, Cagalli?" Lacus said coolly, without bothering to turn around. "I get tired of this, too-"

The blonde cut in. "This will be the first and last time I'll ask this from you. I want to talk to you about something... civilly, no bad-mouthing, no trash-talking." She was trembling as she said this, as though she were consenting to her own personal execution (and in front of no less than her executioner).

Lacus could not hide the surprise on her face at the request. _What would she possibly want to "talk" about? _But even with all her doubts, she found herself nodding in assent. A plan, she said to herself. This was merely an advantageous variable. It was not as if she was becoming soft...

A sudden clearing of the throat almost made both girls jump in shock. "Uh, sorry," Athrun said. He strode towards Kira and whispered, "We should leave." And without waiting for an answer he took the latter's arm and practically dragged him across the hall.

Instead of flailing his arms and shouting in protest (something his twin sister would have done if she were him), Kira calmly fell in step with Athrun. "So. What does Cagalli want to 'talk civilly' about with Lacus?"

The blue-haired teen gave him a fleeting look. "Do you know how long those two have been at odds with each other?" Kira shook his head. "Six years. And never in the history of their being enemies have they 'talked civilly'. This would be the first time."

"Six years? Try eleven." Athrun felt those piercing eyes on him then, and he tried hard not to shiver.

"There's a similarity between her feud with Lacus, and whatever you want to call it between her and you," he dared to say,_ "_None of it was her fault. At least, not directly."

His companion let out a derisive snort. "Aren't you being just a little bit biased, saying that?"

They reached the end of the hallway, stopping near the double doors that led outside. Both felt the warmth of the late afternoon sun, unhindered by the open doors, on their skins.

"Let me show you something." Athrun, without a backward glance, walked out of the school building, his leather shoes plodding on the moist soil. He fought back a self-satisfied smile as he heard Kira's footsteps not far behind him.

The place of destination was a vegetable garden behind the school's greenhouse. There Athrun would give Cagalli's brother a good long lecture about life, and eventually tell him of past events.

But he had not counted on having an eavesdropper when he did.

"Chen. What are you doing here?"

A sixteen year-old boy sat, hunched over one particular crop which had just begun to sprout. He hoisted himself up with his hands, stood up straight, and brushed the dirt off his pants. All this he did without turning around or acknowledging Athrun's presence.

It looked like a scene straight out of an anime, in Athrun's opinion.

"Athrun, who is he?" Kira said, speaking for the first time since they had arrived at the area. He felt a certain familiarity with the person, whose dirty-blonde hair was a dead giveaway.

"Allow me." The boy wheeled around and faced the two. Rimless glasses framed his hazel eyes. Other than that, Kira could easily recognize him.

"Michal Chen." He said, smiling knowingly at the brown-haired teenager. "Good to see you again, Kira."

And Athrun stood there, dumbstruck.

* * *

a/n: More characters! Well, how Michal figures into the equation is yet to be seen. At least, until the next chapters...


End file.
